Initially, when this drama was aired, I was just thinking that this would be just a regular story about a family and its members – as simple as that.

When I started following this drama – yes, it is about a family more on the relationship between the siblings from the childhood moment up till their adulthood. One major difference with other family story was that on how this drama described the BOND (as per the title) of the siblings of Qiao family: Yi Cheng the oldest brother, Er Qiang the second brother, San Li the third daughter, Si Mei the forth daughter and Qiqi, the youngest brother.

To me the story looks very real – it started I believe before the China One Child policy, meaning started before 1980. Because the Qiao family already had 4 children and once the fifth children was born the story started.

The story also described on how chronic poverty hits the family, headed by a drunkard love to gamble father who worked as a rough labor with minimum wage, but he had 4 children and another one was coming. The problem became more severe once the fifth child was born and at the same time took away the live of the mother. The 4 siblings had to live a very hard life and the fifth child became the responsibilities of the siblings.

The rough situation shaped their personalities, especially the oldest son, Yi Cheng – as the oldest son – has to bore the responsibility of his younger brother and sisters. He was forced to take the responsibility because the father neglects them all. The father didn’t care about the wellbeing of his children, so the children needed to survive on their own.

Yi Cheng became overly protective to his siblings, not because he wanted to but because the condition forced him to take the responsibility. This also made everybody become overly dependent to the older brother.

The story was very touching – please prepare a box of Kleenex to wipe your tears. Once they grew up, everyone has their own stories, their own problems and they were told nicely in this drama.

Everyone was influenced by their childhood, their personalities were shaped from childhood, teenage till adulthood and each and everyone have different and interesting personalities. Everyone has their love interest, their own personal relationship and love story.

These elements made the story very interesting. And all elements of the story look very real and natural, as if you were taken to see the journey of each individual of the Qiao family. You will taken to emotion roller coaster ride. The story of regular people.

I admire Qiao Si Mei character, she is very lively, carefree, poetic, courageous. At the age of less than 10 years old, she travels back alone from other province to her home in Nanjing where she needs to take a train. She went to Beijing alone to watch her idol concert. She travelled to Tibet border to meet her boyfriend who is stationed in border military post. She is really remarkable, pursuing her happiness.

The acting of each main lead also superb. No exaggeration – just like watching what happened in your own family with every problem that you have to face.

The properties for this drama is also well prepared to tell the story from the 80’s to 2005. You can also see how technology developed from this drama. The Tube Colour TV, the Walkman, the Pager, ole mobile phones, old computers, big video camera and recording device, roller skate then transform to skating ring. All details and progress as years go by are really good.

So if you like a real life drama, you should watch this.